Canadian born Chico Resch, former Islander, Flyer and Devil, has become a Jersey guy

With bagel in his left hand, Chico Resch extended his right arm through an open car window to shake hands with a friend. The driver stopped abruptly in the middle of the street when he saw Resch on Ridge Road in Lyndhurst. The two chatted and laughed, as most do when the former NHL goaltender and Devils television color commentator is around.

Glenn "Chico" Resch, a former NHL goaltender and current color commentator for the Devils, in his favorite chair in his Lyndhurst home preparing for the night's telecast. A face mask for the Islanders, one of his former teams, is at right.

Resch is well-known in his Lyndhurst neighborhood where he and his wife, Diane, have lived during the NHL season for the last decade. The Canadian-born-and-raised former player went to college at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, where he met Diane. They live in the North Star State during the off-season, but, Resch said, they recently did the math and realized there is no place they have spent more time than in New Jersey.

He is attached to the area. His daughter went to school here. He was with the team when it first arrived in East Rutherford and has been the team's color commentator since 1996.

"It has the feel of home," Resch said of the Garden State.

When the Colorado Rockies became the New Jersey Devils for the 1982-83 NHL season, they brought with them Glenn "Chico" Resch, a goalie who got his nickname in the '70s because of his resemblance to Freddie Prinze Sr., who starred on "Chico and the Man" at the time.

Resch, who had won the Stanley Cup with the Islanders in 1980, was good enough to make the early Devils teams that struggled to win fun to watch. He was also, perhaps more importantly at the time, a player with the personality to carry the fledgling skaters into the hearts of local sports fans. Resch not only shouldered the burden on the ice in those early, difficult seasons, but happily became the team's greatest off-ice ambassador. He continues in that role today.

"I think he's just a genuinely nice guy who has time for everyone, cares about you and there's just a connection with everybody wherever we go," said Matt Loughlin, Devils radio play-by-play man and once part of the team's television crew with Resch.

Despite his history on the Islanders and hated rival Flyers, Devils fans and New Jersey natives claim Resch as one of their own. At least for another year.

This could be Resch's final season behind the mike, he said, at 65 with new team owners and a desire to do other things in his life, like travel with Diane.

"I think when you're a player, your body tells you or screams at you, 'Enough,' " Resch said. "Whereas in our business, other factors enter into it like wanting to do other things. We're not exactly sure of the timetable but it's going to be sooner rather than later."

Diane has never really traveled, he said, but they would like to together. They have plans to go to Italy. During the NHL's Olympics break this season, they are going to Switzerland where a niece's husband plays hockey.

Outgoing and humble, the former athlete turned television personality doesn't complain of overzealous fans at an airport gate or prima donna players in the locker room. Wherever Resch goes, he greets old friends and makes new ones.

"His personality is such that he's always got a smile on his face," Loughlin said. "Every day is a good day. He's got time for everyone. … He's friendly. He cares about other people. It's not just, 'I'm shaking your hand to make your day.' It kind of makes his day that you spend some time with him. So, I think that just resonates."

Before Lyndhurst the Resches lived in Little Ferry, and Ridgewood during his playing days, but Lyndhurst feels most like home, Chico said. He didn't grow up in the hockey folklore of Canadian ponds and prairies. He feels most comfortable in an urban environment.

"I just like the city — I don't know if you'd call Lyndhurst a city when we're living near Newark and New York — but that smaller city feel or neighborhood," he said. "That's what I'm used to. I was an inner-city guy in Regina, Saskatchewan. We tend to go back to what we know and like."

When moving out of Little Ferry, the Resches had some priorities for their new neighborhood.

"Having lived in the New York area since 1974, one thing my wife Diane and I we agreed was [we] wanted to live some place near work so the commute isn't overbearing," he said.

This home was close to East Rutherford and the Devils' new home in Newark, where Diane frequents the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.

After proximity to work, the Resches wanted that familiar-feeling neighborhood — the ability to walk to the nearby bagel shop, bakery or local restaurants — and nearby public transportation to Manhattan.

"Diane loves to go to the theater and concerts, and we have lots of people visiting from Canada and other places," Resch said. "We wanted it to be some place on a good bus line — where they can come and visit and we take them in the first time, show them how to get in and out and can shoo them off every day and say, 'You go, we'll see you when you get back.' "

When their company is not seeing the sights, the Resches are likely to take them to their favorite local restaurant, Pietro's Trattoria.